Comment on "Catchment flow estimation using Artifical Neural Networks in the mountainous Euphrates basin" by AG Yilmaz, MA Imteaz, G. Jenkins (J. Hydrol. 410 (2011) 134-140)

Abstract

The studies conducted in the Euphrates Basin draws special attention due to its high snow potential and hydropolitical condition. Snow and hydrometeorological instrumentation has been set up for real time monitoring and data collection in the Upper Euphrates Basin over the past decade. Hydrological modeling studies using satellite snow products have been carried out in the basin for real time runoff forecasting. Moreover, the Upper Euphrates Basin is a pilot basin for several national and international projects on snow hydrology concerning its location and topography. These are the main reasons in writing this comment on the methodology and data used by Yilmaz et al. Yilmaz et al. draw the attention to the ANN which does not require a high level of expertise in successfully identifying the nonlinear hydrological processes. However, ANN modeling should be used with care and enough data including topography and snow data especially when applied in a mountainous snow dominated basin